Route: Side Stories
by animeparody
Summary: kagerou project oneshot collection. both bad end and route 01 fics. Formerly Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the guiltiest one of all? send prompts if you want to!
1. 1)Guilty

Shintaro remembers that the day after he first saw him, he wonders if he was an omen.

He can't remember much, only that they were in his classroom, its sunset, the windows are wide open and of course, a mirror image of himself sitting across him, dressed in a black pullover and solemnly staring at him.

It's a small thought that somehow manages to flit through his minds constant screams of _'oh god Ayano, why, why, why?'_

After that, his dreams are haunted by that exact same scenery, but this he only ever sees his doppelgänger at the edge of his sight. When he turns in an attempt to catch the black figure he wakes up.

* * *

The next time he catches the full figure of his doppelgänger- oh hell he needs a name for this guy. He's just going to call him 01. It's the anniversary of Ayano's death (he refuses to call it suicide because there's no way she would have done that) and after a whole day of just staring at the ceiling wonder why his chest still clenches up he closes his eyes and just knocks off.

He doesn't notice it's a dream, heck who ever does, and panics because the hands at his throat hurts, the tears that falling on his face are warm and wet and his ears are being assaulted with a voice yelling '**_Why did you let her die?_**'. He registers the fact that he is on his back, judging from the coldness of the floor and that fact he's looking at the ceiling. It takes a moment longer for him to realize he's looking at-

_himself_

-01, it's his voice that's yelling and the words have changed to,_** 'its your fault you pathetic bastard!'**_

The fingers tighten, he feels lightheaded and the black that's been creeping along the side of his vision engulfs him and he wakes to a start, his fist clenching the bed sheet.

He doesn't dream of him for nearly a year after that.

* * *

A year later, a few days before August 15, his subconscious has taken him back to that classroom he hasn't seen (in reality) for nearly two years and part of him is grateful that this time he isn't met with 01 attempting to strangle him.

It's not just a glimpse on the corner of his eye this time even- they're both looking at each at other straight on from opposite ends of the classroom, with Shintaro near the windows facing outside of school and 01 at the other end.

There's something new this time, a cracked glass barrier that separates them. Even as Shintaro and 01 continue their state off more cracks start to appear on the barrier.

If he wasn't staring so hard at 01 he wouldn't have noticed his haze shift from him, to something behind behind him. He turns and everything freezes, his mind blanks because-

R_ed muffler, black uniform, long hair, red hair clips, a smile-_

He shoots up in his bed, prompting Ene to worriedly ask if he had a nightmare (somewhere in the mess of his mind he thinks to ask why the computer is on when he remembers clearly having switched it off).

He waves off Ene with assurances and tells her he's going to wash up first when in fact it's just a cover up so he can go somewhere alone and think.

* * *

The next time he sees 01, it's the second last time, and its after Shintaro has died.

The dream starts out with him lying down on some cold smooths surface, eyes closed and trying to unscramble his brain and form a solid thought. His memories are coming in incoherent pieces.

_-Mekkakushi Dan, mission, heat haze, eyes, Momo, Ene, Konoha, black, gun, yelling, the gun is being pressed against his head,__** I'm in my room**__?, no, __**01**__,have to stop, __**red scissors**__,no, __**I can join her**__, run, won't make it, gunshot, __**blade going into his nec**__k, pain?, red, is that his blood?- _

He's sure a quarter of that was 01's memories then more memories he's very sure belongs to someone else-

_-fire, burning, pain, sister, mouth, swallowed, red eyes, theycan'tseeme, mom, stranger, knife, blood, mouth?, black, itsalllies, dog, river, no, water, can't breathe, red eyes?, iknowyourlying-_

Or several someone's it seems, and he thinks he knows who these memories belong to.

_-no, pain, mom?, NO!, pain, sticks, pain, where'smom?, dad?, water, sinking, no air, mouth?, red eyes, theyallkeepstaringatme, dig, earth, landslide, no, wife, save, must save, no, dead, red eyes?, what's happening, h_r_k_?, dead?, red eyes? Can't remember, stroke, help, dead, who am I? Red eyes, I can't remember, truck, poles, repeating, must save, truck, red eyes, where is she?-_

For someone who just got shot and died, Shintaro is oddly calm as his memories start to piece themselves together along with a suddenly clear understanding of what happened, why its happened and what he has to do next thanks to an addition of memories that don't belong to him.

He's not sure when he actually wakes up because the next thing he knows he's walking past a woman with red eyes who's staring at him in shock but then he feels the sensation of opening his eyes and is looking at 01 across that barrier and he can hear her voice from behind him.

"I guessed I died, I'm sorry."

01 one is giving him a pleading look and screams when he walks away from Ayano. They cross each other and everything goes white, the sensation of something separating from him, before he's back at the classroom, this time facing where he previously stood. This time with Ayano looking at him and not 01.

She just smiles at him while the curtains flutter in the wind.

He knows the name of what split from him now.

"Hey Ayano. I guess I've moved on now huh?"

Ayano gives him a surprised look by her smile returns, brighter than before and she slips of her muffler, hooking it around his neck on fluid motion.

"I'm glad."

She disappears with the flutter if the curtains, and Shintaro smiles for the first time in the long time as he flips a stray muffler end over his holder so it won't fall off.

As he turns around, he notices the infamous last paper crane Ayano folded for him, folded from the test paper with a perfect score that he had torn into pieces on the day of her death.

* * *

It's over now. Heat Haze days. Sure, he's dead (they all are) but at least everybody who was trapped was released. Kido's sister is out enjoying her life, Kano's mom is a successful lawyer, Hiyori is playing with her cat somewhere, his dad is off doing god knows what and most importantly, Ayano's enjoying her life out there, somewhere.

Although everybody who went on the mission had their existence erased are externally stuck in the remains of the Kagerou Days they severed from the real world. An eternity in a looping pocket dimension was worth it when you balanced out the pros and cons.

Though there's not much to do.

Which makes it all the more interesting when Azami herself of all people appear in his corner of the dimension. It was normal if she went over to Mary (because they were related) or Kenjirou (since the guy was on talking terms anyway) heck it would have been more normal if she went over to Kano's side.

He raises an eyebrow at the black clad figure, noticing that she has a hand mirror the size of her face in hand.

_Oh boy. I hope she's not here to smack my head with that. _

It turns out that Azami is not here to beat him senseless with her large mirror but to show him something on it.

"An anomaly. The second you, created out of guilt, has been borne a consciousness."

Shintaro peers into the mirror, which is apparently not a mirror (after a while, they stopped asking about these things) and sees Ayano? She's walking down the street with-

**_01. _**

_Oh. _

Bits of the conversation filter out of the mirror.

"—type of name is Kisaragi Reichi? 01? Weird name to suit a weird person!"

"Says the person who wears a red muffler 12 months a year! I mean, have you—"

Shintaro just sits there pondering the anomaly with Azami for a few hours, staring at the mirror.

That's the last time he sees his doppelgänger.

* * *

So this was written as a submission for a competition on an app called Anime Animo under my user name ❌Cracked•Mirror❌. Inspired my lost time memory and written from midnight to 1:30 am so sorry if its crappy and the ending was kinda lame.


	2. 2)Hidden story

normal, _actor,_ kuroha, **azami**

* * *

_"Hey."_

_"…"_

_"Hey, are you listening?"_

_"I can hear you."_

_"Doesn't mean you're listening."_

_"…"_

_"Do you have a name?"_

_"…no."_

_"Why?"_

_"Same reason as you."_

* * *

"Hey Takane look at this! I found this in our language studies book! It looks weird! How do say this?"

"That's three in German idiot. Pass the book over so I look at it clearly Haruka."

"Here."

"It says here that three is 'Drei', before that is one and two which is 'Eins' and 'Zwei'."

"Takane you're so smart!"

"You're just an idiot Haruka."

* * *

_"That boy seems to like the girl."_

_"Oh? How weird of you to start the conversation this time."_

_"…"_

_"Don't start brooding again now. Yeah, you're right. Haruka seems to like that girl of yours."_

_"Infatuated."_

_"I wouldn't go that far yet. It's more like that human thing, you know that thing called a 'crush'?"_

_"Its seems so."_

* * *

"Haruka, why does the final boss in the game look like me?"

"You don't like it Takane? I picked her from this set of drawings I was randomly last month."

"Lemme see that. Eh? There's two of me? And you too!"

"Aha, I got this sudden brain wave and drew them on the spot. The you I'm using for the game is called Headphone Actor. The other you is Ene. The white me is called Konoha. The black one is Kuroha!"

"Tell me more after after the cultural festival. Right now we have a games booth to set up."

"Right!"

* * *

_"Looks like we have names now."_

_"Yes. You are 'Kuroha', I am 'Headphone Actor' it seems."_

_"Headphone actor is too long. In just going to call you Actor. That fine with you?"_

_"Alright."_

_"Have you seen that 'Ene' in your part? I think I saw that 'Konoha' once."_

_"They are the happiness. We have… different roles."_

_"I know that. We're just the cache dump of stuff they don't want."_

* * *

**_You can be more_**

_"Who the hell are you?!"_

**_You can be more_**

_"Get out! You're not welcome here!"_

**_Become my key_**

_"G░▋ aw░▋ fr░▋me! Lea░▋ me alo░▋!"_

* * *

_"Kuroha?"_

_…_

_"Kuroha where are you?"_

_…_

_"You said you wouldn't leave me…"_


	3. 3)Conversation

"Its relatively quiet around here no? Such a peaceful feeling."

"Its not like that where you live?"

"Ah no it's not. It's noisy when the sun is up."

It had been the day after Seto first found he house hidden in the woods and its sole occupant, Mary. Upon the revelation that Mary shockingly never tasted an ice cream before in her whole life Seto had lugged a small cooling box filled with ice cream and ice through the forest that day. Mary had been hesitant to eat the cold treat at first but once Seto took a bite out of one to reassure her, she ate hers and found herself addicted to it. The chocolate cone she was holding at the moment was her third treat.

"The birds can be loud sometimes."

"The birds here make a nice songs though. Reminds me of how I found the house."

Mary paused mid-bite and asked Seto a rather valid question.

"Speaking of which Seto, how did you find the house? It's deep in the forest with no paths leading to it and surrounded by closely packed trees."

At that, Seto grinned, as if he had been waiting for that question.

"Now that's a good question! You know that my eyes can do things like yours right?"

Mary nodded. This was one of the first things he told her, to reassure her that her eyes wouldn't kill him or make him scared of her.

"My ability to 'steal' information from the stuff I look at. At the beginning I could just tell if people are lying but I've worked out the kinks over time. Now I can look at a person and I'll know anything that they know."

"What does that have to do with anything? You said people. Before you, no one else knew of this place."

Seto smiled again, as if Mary's point wasn't a problem.

"You see a lot of birds like to fly over here right? I was testing my abilities on one because I wanted to see what it would be like if I used my powers on an animal. Then I saw that the bird had memories of a house in the woods. I got curious and found my way here."

"So you followed the birds memories of the path the bird took?"

"Yeah…"

Seto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well bird-eyes view and my view are pretty different so I ended up crashing into a few trees…"

"I thought Seto was naturally clumsy?"

"Me? Clumsy? That's not true!"

_The story of a little summer conversation between the boy and the girl._


	4. 4)Summertime Memoir

Dear Miss Azami,

Takane and the others might get mad if they heard about me writing for you. They want to move on. But I am moving on. I'm just acknowledging our trials.

I got a notebook you know? No not that one. A new one. It's bigger. I redrew it all, from the end till the beginning. All our stories are written in here, with my drawing and your words.

I started with yours, since yours started first. I have two, and they're titled as Shinigami Record, The story of showing kindness or The story of staring with one's eyes, and Dead and Seek, The story where one's eyes become clear. I hope you don't mind. I think that you were a big part of our story, so I really wanted to dedicate at least a small part to you.

Then I got a small story for Miss Shion called Gunjou Rain, this story of a mother who wished for her child to remain safe forever, because she played a part in our relationship with Mary.

Then Mary's was next. Mary no Kakuu Sekai, A story that closes the eyes. And one for when she met Seto called Imagination Forest, The story about seeing eye-to-eye.

The I got the back stories of the rest, starting with the big three, Kido, Kano and Seto. Mekakushi Code, The story about hiding your eyes for Kido. Yobanashi Deceive, the story of deceiving ones eyes for Kano of course. Then Seto's was Shounen Brave, the story that steals your eyes.

Then I did some pairs; Ayano with Shintaro and Me with Takane's Toumei answer, the story where one averts ones eyes, and Yuukei Yesterday, the story of glaring eyes respectively. Ayano and Shintaro's story is about their bond before Ayano died I guess. Mine and Takane is about our friendship before the heat haze days.

Then I did this one just for Ayano called Ayano no Koufuku Riron, A story that rises to the eyes. It's all about her, the first member of the Dan.

Since I knew Takane the most I did three more on her. Headphone Actor, The story about doubting your eyes, a sort of prequel to when she became Ene. Ene's Cyber Journey,The story about awakening your eyes, for when she was Ene. One more, for the 'bad end', Jinzou Enemy, The story about turning away your eyes. I was uncomfortable with the idea of this at first but I figured I needed to let it out.

Then one on Momo, Kisaragi Attention, The story where all eyes are on you. You know Shintaro's sister? The idol? Well she's not an idol anymore now. She decided to focus on her studies for now.

This one was the hardest. Another pair story, Hibiya and Hiyori's Kagerou Days, The story that will overwhelm your eyes. It's more on Hibiya's point of view because I don't know much about Hiyori. I haven't spoken to her. I have it that title because Hibiya's 'tragedy' was the one that really set us off on our mission you know? But I felt really sad when I was writing this because what happened to Hibiya was probably the worst, since he could remember it.

To go with Hibiya's story, I did one on our… well Konoha's meeting with him. Its called Konoha no Sekai no Jijou, The story about opening his eyes. My thought is at that time we were separate people, so its using his name instead of mine. It's from Konoha's point of view during Hibiya's repeating world.

After all these backstories and prologues I finally wrote the 'opening' to our story. Children Record,The story of children's faces. It's about the Mekkakushi Dan, as one group and not as individuals. That point where all our 'fates' crossed. And well, a lot of foreshadowing.

After that was Momo getting Hibiya to open up to her I guess, and his initiation to the Dan. I called it Otsukimi Recital, A story that brightens the eyes, because Momo brought back the light to Hibiya's eyes after Hiyori.

Lost Time Memory, A story of repeating regret, was about Shintaro as he overcame his regret. Well you probably know more about than me. He said he saw you then, and his 'bad end'. Apparently he has no idea how to explain what was going on then.

Speaking about bad ends, the second last story was dedicated to it, our failures. Outer Science, the story of eyes saying as much as the mouth. The bad end, that dark Konoha and Mary resetting time. I think it was because Shintaro didn't join us. His bad end self committed suicide right?

The last story, the ending and our closure. Summertime Record, A stunning story, the Story of the Spinning Eyes. About our acceptance towards the end, our initial changes, how we helped each other get by the aftermath and how we chose to part ways.

Shintaro's planning to make a couple of songs based on this, since he's actually an awesome secret composer. Takane will be helping him since he'll be mostly using his computer and over the course of her time as Ene she became a computer genius. Momo will be singing them, because even when her captivation was gone it turns out she's actually really good at singing. I agreed to draw for the PV.

Well I'll close of this letter for now, I'll send you another one soon. Mary says she might write one by the way. I'll always remember, and we'll all meet again soon.

Sincerely,

Haruka Kokonose.


End file.
